![]() ![]() Injuries have included dislodged teeth and broken or severed fingers. ![]() Vertical strikes to the spine and horizontal strikes to the back of the neck are forbidden. Fighters can hit any region in the “kill zone,” which excludes the feet, back of knees, groin, back of neck and base of skull. Stabbing or thrusting, which Brooks defined as repeatedly delivering excess force to the same point of contact, is not allowed. Unlike in traditional sports, equipment is inspected to ensure it conforms to the period in history that a particular competition is commemorating, based on historical findings and evidence. There are rules to the game, but not ones that are restrictive enough to eliminate serious injuries. “It’s not something I want to do,” Cannata said. Last year, Brooks said, participants needed to meet only two qualifications to make the squad: paying for a trip to Poland and “having the guts to do this.” Jaye Brooks, 47, executive officer of the United States team, described the game strategy partly as keeping adversaries from getting behind a team’s players, similar to hockey and soccer.īrooks, a senior project manager in Nashua, N.H., recruited a team of 50 fighters, including himself and his son Catlin, 25, for the event. Fighters are assigned positions similar to those in American football, like center, guard and flanker. The referee, called the knight marshal, issues soccer-style yellow and red cards for rule infractions. Matches involving fewer fighters are usually over within a couple minutes, while the all-versus-all match can last up to 10 minutes.Įlements of the competition have been borrowed from other sports. A combatant bows out when three body parts, which include the feet, are touching the ground. Winners of each match are decided by which side has the last fighter, or fighters, standing. The Battle of the Nations consists of four fighting formats: 1 on 1 5 on 5 21 on 21 and all against all, in which some opposing squads join forces. ![]() “To be able to get my mind around what it was like back then, I look at it from this perspective: If I lose the fight, that would be me dying out there.” “I’ve always been interested in history and war,” Ivey said. Many fighters are intrigued by a time when differences were settled by sword fights to the death. The Battle of the Nations, in its fourth year, is the first international full-contact competition of this scale that uses steel armor - a heightened risk factor that has attracted a certain breed of fighters. More common re-enactment fighting involves wooden weapons in the United States. Ivey, 34, is among an estimated 500 participants from 22 countries entered in the four-day event.įull-contact armored fighting events grew out of participation in historical re-enactments, which are largely theatrical and tame. “Everybody thinks I’m a little crazy,” Ivey said, without refuting the perception. ![]() He will compete in his first Battle of the Nations, a modern-day, medieval-like combat involving national teams of fighters. Ivey, a fitness trainer in Atlanta, will use all 60 pounds of the equipment Thursday at an outdoor arena in Aigues-Mortes, in the south of France. He has a steel, rounded shield a five-sided, wooden shield a red, white and blue surcoat a protective vest a wraparound helmet, pockmarked with dents steel pads to hide his forearms, knees, legs and hands and a blunt-edged sword designed to inflict pain but not cut. ATLANTA - Inside Craig Ivey’s travel bag are objects reminiscent of the Middle Ages. ![]()
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